Terror of Mewthree
by Cell's Twin Sister Celita
Summary: I'm not sure how to describe this one. It's not finished. Should I finish it?


Terror of Mewthree  
  
The group of trainers milled around listlessly. They had all been called together for a meeting on Cinnabar Island…but why? Red, a young trainer, asked his friend Rocky, "What're we waiting around here for, again?" Rocky replied, "I said it before and I'll say it again. I have no idea. And why in the name of all sanity is this thing being held in an abandoned castle?" A woman in the crowd said, "Anybody here got the time?" Nobody replied. Jessie and James, the dynamic duo of Team Rocket, wondered just what they were doing there. Weren't they supposed to be out catching rare creatures for the black market? An old man carped, "Who's hosting this little shindig, anyhow? I tell you what, somebody's a real inconsiderate host." A girl said, "Well it's supposed to be being hosted by the one and only record-setting master trainer, Romany Marsh. But I'm of a good mind to cut out of here right now. I for one am sick of waiting." Sabrina, a psychic trainer, said with great calmness, "Don't worry. Romany Marsh will be here soon."  
  
A deep, melodious voice said, "A moment, please. If everyone would kindly be patient, I will be right down." That caused a minor clamor, because no one could really agree on where the voice was coming from. Atop an ornate spiral staircase, a curtain of navy blue silk parted, not to reveal a well-dressed man or elegant lady, but a vision of something that was wholly other. Grotesque triple-toed paws held the silken curtain open behind an apparition of unearthly hideousness. Standing there calmly, as if he belonged there, as if he owned the place, was Mewtwo. The crowd gaped up at him and a real clamor started. He was supposedly just a legend, but there he was, as plain as day. And he could talk! He took a step forward and said, "If you would please be silent for a moment, I will happily explain everything." The crowd calmed down, anxious to learn more. Mewtwo continued, "I am Romany Marsh, the master trainer who invited you here. I am truly sorry for the deception, but it was necessary in order to get you all to come here. And as for the reason why…" He either flipped a hidden switch or manipulated something with his mind, for a tapestry gave way, revealing a hidden door. On the door was emblazoned the biohazard symbol, along with the words 'Unauthorized Entry Prohibited.' The trainers gasped at the sight. Mewtwo said, "My time for concealment is over. Now is the time for it all to emerge into the light. Come! Witness my triumphs!" Mewtwo descended the spiral stair to join the crowd, mingling yet standing out. He said, "If you would but follow me…" He sauntered a few steps forward, his back to them all. Then he stopped in mid-step, turned his coruscating violet gaze upon the crowd in a sideways glance, and said, "Oh. And Jessie, James… No funny stuff, okay?" He turned back and continued to lead the crowd. He led them down through the door he had revealed. Jessie and James stayed put a moment, shivering. Their enigmatic, inhuman host had known of their idea the moment they had thought of it. Jessie said, "James, he knows everything we think. How do we catch a creature that can pick our minds clean and know our plans the moment we think of them?" James replied, "It's simple, really. Act on impulse. There won't be even the slightest thought for him to pick up on. Let's catch up with the crowd."   
  
Passing through the door, following the alien form of their host, the crowd entered a huge brick-walled room. Inside the room were all sorts of fantastic machines. Massive supercomputers, graphs, charts, beakers, hot plates, test tubes… The works and all that.   
It was the most scientifically advanced laboratory anywhere. And it had been constructed and kept secret by an inhuman creature. Mewtwo said, "This is my laboratory. I conduct genetic engineering experiments here. I have thus far discovered a whole lot of things about the nature of cellular biology that I have just been dying to show someone."   
  
Swishing his pallid tail with pride, he walked among his experiments and materials like Moses parting the Red Sea. He said, "I have been studying anatomical modifications, and have thus far improved the basic pattern slightly. Considering the fact that cells are already naturally self-renewing and that a change to enough cells is more than enough to start a cascade reaction at exponential speeds, these modifications can even be applied to an existing organism to cause major changes to everything including basic anatomy. I call it the Niagara Effect." A person at the far back of the crowd asked, "What exactly do you experiment on?" Mewtwo replied, "Simple. I mostly experiment on mice and rats, but I use cats a little. And I also use cells from my own body. My results wander this castle freely. They are very skittish and really dislike humans. That is why you saw nothing on your way in. They like me because I am more like them than humans are. I even have several 'children' among my specimens. For the sake of not seeming like a total liar, I will whistle them up. Any psychics in the crowd? Lock yourself down. This is going to be painful for you." He closed his eyes and everyone in the crowd felt a sort of distortion effect, because all humans are psychic creatures to some degree but don't really know it.   
  
The call was answered quickly. All kinds of fantastic creatures came at their father's call, little Mewtwos, giant cats, super-fast mice and incredibly ugly rats. Mewtwo said, "There is one more creature in my menagerie that I want to show to you. The pinnacle of my achievements. I really pushed the proverbial envelope with him. Every sense, every fiber of physical and mental being, every iota of strength pushed to its conceptual limit and beyond. The strongest, most powerful being ever! Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you my son, my ultimate creation! I give to you-Mewthree!"   
  
It-he swooped in from above and passed low over the crowd, making them duck and scream. He touched down softly beside his father. The crowd finally got a good look at him. A segmented carapace covered his body and acted as armor. His tail was spiked and had a spike-encrusted club at the end. His face was even more harshly angular than his father's and even his ears looked razor sharp. He had wings, too. They were vast and membranous, like the wings of a bat, and they had serrated edges. His eyes glowed red and his flesh was the hue of ancient ashes. He was awesome. Awesome and terrifying.   
  
Jessie and James froze, scared. James said, "Jessie, how are we going to fight that?" Jessie replied, "Just like you said. Instinctive action. But I don't really want to do it anymore." James said, "But we have to do it. Why? Because we're Team Rocket!" Jessie replied, "Yep. Let's get it on! This guy's a threat to human domination of Earth." With that, Jessie and James began to move. Moving at the speed of frozen molasses, they prayed they would not be noticed. And they weren't. Not by the crowd or their enigmatic, inhuman host. But they were noticed by the one that they feared the most. They almost died of fright when Mewthree turned toward them. He let them see through his eyes, showing them an image of a boy and a girl moving as if they were stuck in a dream. Themselves. Then he showed them an image of total carnage, in which they snatched up Mewtwo's creations like schoolgirls picking flowers while Mewthree faced off against his father. But they knew that the battle would be fierce and psychic, so they quit fast.  
  
Mewthree folded his wings tightly against his back and spoke aloud for the very first time. Mewtwo was always trying to get him to learn how to talk, but he had known all the time. He said, "Father, you say that I was an experiment in improving basic anatomy. That I am an improved clone of you. If that is so, I have just one thing to say. There can only be one of us in existence at one time. Either you cease to exist, or I do." Mewthree lunged at his father. In a moment, their minds were locked together in combat. They were paw to paw, trying to force the other back. Mewthree snarled, "I'm the best! I am! Not you! Me! It's me! You set in motion the cycle that created me, your ultimate successor. You, in your ignorance, gave me life! You, in your stupidity, gave me power! Power to use! The power is mine now and I will use it! And now…behold your creation, father!"   
  
The crowd flipped its collective lid. Everything went crazy. A maelstrom whirled into existence around the battling felines. Objects rose from their places and swirled through the room in a deadly hail. Terrible winds screamed through the room like banshees. Glass shattered without a hand touching it and circuits exploded as they were overloaded with electromagnetic energy, a byproduct of the terrible power unleashed by their fight. The brick walls began to crack from within, crumbling in extremely extreme slow motion.  
  
Sabrina, a psychic trainer, pressed her hands to her head. Rocky rushed up to her and said, "What's going on here? Everything's just-just going-well-crazy!" She replied, "They're waging psychic war on each other. On all planes of existence, they're fighting. Jeez, the power-" She shook her head, then said, "Mewthree is furious and yet, somehow, elated. The power's hitting him like the ultimate stimulant. As he wills it, the power comes to him full force…and he's turning it all on his father." She paused, then said, "And as for Mewtwo…he's scared. He's just barely holding his own against his son as it is. He realizes, yes, he did engineer his son to have greater strength of both body and mind. He's thinking, 'What if I can't win this one? He's right. He's better than I am. Stronger. There's no way I can win against him. But I have to win. I have to!' He doesn't know what to do and he's afraid. And-holy cow! He's worried about us! In his mind, he's having visions of Mewthree attacking the crowd, killing indiscriminately-No matter what happens to him, he's going to protect us from his son!" Red stepped up and said, "Hey. If he's willing to do that for us, then don't we have to do something for him?"   
  
A girl at the back of the crowd stepped up. She said, "Hi. My name is Misty and I think I know what to do. We have to distract Mewthree somehow. Someone else must join the battle. Someone whose psychic strength is roughly on the level with their own. A common denominator, sort of. A great equalizer. Someone who's linked to them." Sabrina fairly yelled, "That's so brilliant! How did you come up with it?" Misty replied, "I don't really know. It just popped into my head. I also get the feeling that someone's coming to the rescue even as we speak. Someone…strange. Someone who's not human."   
  
The crowd cried out in wonder as the smallish pink energy bubble passed low over their heads, floating silently toward the heated psychic battle. The telepathic storm raged on all sides of the bubble, but the bubble stayed untouched. Both Mewtwo and Mewthree paused to watch it come closer. A high, fluting warble pierced the suddenly stilled air. Then the bubble burst, revealing a tiny white-furred apparition straight out of legends from the Amazon rainforest. It was kind of like a kitten, except it was built more like a kangaroo rat. A long, thin tail stuck straight up from behind it, waving in the air. Two big sky-blue eyes regarded both the combatants with equal curiosity. "Mew," it said.  
  
The trainers flipped their lids-again. The crowd roiled with wild shouts of "Whoa, baby! Is that a Mew? Not a Mew, the Mew! There's only one of her and she's it! Glory goes to whoever catches her! Never fear, I'll- No, don't catch her!" Jessie and James were practically drooling over the sight of the tiny kitten-creature. Their mission was to catch rare creatures, and Mew was the rarest of all. But it appeared that Mew was there to stop the psychic battle between Mewtwo and Mewthree, her son and grandson. They both stared at her like a pair of furry idiots. Mewtwo had never really seen her before. He had been made with her in absentia, and so had never met his mother. Mewthree had never even heard of her, but he somehow knew that she was his grandmother. He stepped forward and spoke. "Grandmother Mew," he said, "What am I? Not born of Nature, no, not even truly born. I wasn't born. I was made. What am I? What will I be?" He dropped to his knees before her, starting to cry. She nuzzled up against him, chirping a question.   
  
He embraced her, sobbing, "I'm scared. I don't know what I'm supposed to be. I desperately want to be my own person, but how can I, when I know I'm just a science experiment? Look at me. Look at me, Grandmother! I'm a lab rat!" He turned to cast a sideways glance toward his father and said, "Now take a look at him! He made me in an experiment. I'm not his son; I'm his creation! I'm just a game he plays. I mean I'm just a thing to him, not a real person. He doesn't see me for me. Do you have any idea of how it is to be his sworn enemy, yet always to ache for his love and approval? Sadness has been an integral part of my life since first I stood and spread my wings! The pain I have known all my life-surely no father's child deserves to feel that!" Mew chirped again, then warbled softly. Mewtwo put a paw over his heart and exclaimed, "Oh, by all that's holy! I didn't know that was how you felt. It isn't so. It wasn't an experiment. It was never an experiment! From the moment you were born, from the moment you first opened your eyes, you were first and foremost my son. We're a family. Whatever has gone wrong, we can work through it-together!" That gave Mewthree pause. He said, "Together-? Both of us…together?" He straightened up; crimson eyes blazing, and snarled, "No. You're lying. If I trust you, you'll just hurt me again! I want to believe you. I do. But how can I? Why am I suffering this way? I'm not the guilty one!" He created a sphere of flames around his rage-filled form, screaming, "You are! Father, you are! I give you what you first gave me-a legacy of hatred! The burning core of entropy itself! A loss of hope-a loss of life-a scourge that will touch and wither the whole world in turn! Now DIE!"   
  
A strange voice yelled, "Stop!" Mewthree turned. The crowd had closed in on one side, led by Misty. It was Misty who spoke. She said, "What does it matter how you were born? All that matters is that you are here! You are here, you are alive and you are now! That is all that means anything! Life is what matters! We're all here! That's a blessing, see? Life is a miracle, no matter how it starts. On a metaphysical plane of existence, some higher power guided your father's hand-well-paw to breathe life into a wondrous new creature in this world. You, Mewthree, you!" He listened, beginning to feel a strange new thing blossom within him. Comprehension. Misty continued, "No matter how you look at it, it's a gift. The most precious gift anyone can give is life itself. Mewtwo gave you life out of sheer love. Please. Don't waste your life on hating the one who gave it to you."  
  
Mewthree stepped back a bit and said, "I understand now." He turned to the crowd and continued, "Father was giving a presentation. I have a presentation of my own to give." The crowd stepped back into the place they had occupied earlier. Mewthree turned back to Mewtwo and said, "Father, I have a confession to make. I've been using your lab. Whenever you would take a break or head off for a quick snooze, I'd do my thing. You know, sneak in, do a little work, tidy up and sneak back out. I didn't have the know-how or the time to make fantastical creatures like these of your creation. All I had time to do was make winged cats. I didn't make them in the interest of science, though." He paused, looking away. Then he said, "I suppose this gives 'making friends' a new meaning, huh?" Then he laughed. A few minutes later, he said, "Anyway, I have winged cats. They didn't reply to your call because they aren't yours. I'll call them." He closed his eyes and everyone in the crowd not-quite-heard him yelling, "Lepton! Quark! Boson! Come!"   



End file.
